iRobot - Roomba 694

If it's just one room, get one of the old random bounce around Roombas with the bristle roller. 500 or 600 series. They're great at picking up litter and combing embedded pet hair out of carpet. I have a 692 I keep just for that. They're also super cheap because everyone wants the self-emptying models now. I see the older ones pretty often at thrift stores and Facebook Marketplace for under $30.

I have three shorthair cats and live in an apartment that is mostly medium pile carpet. In my experience vacuums that have rollers with combination rubber and bristles do better at combing pet hair out of carpet fibers than ones with all rubber rollers. A lot of reviewers do pet hair tests by scattering small clumps or individual strands of hair on top of carpet and that's not the whole story in real life. The hairs work their way down into the carpet and it takes aggressive agitation and strong suction to get them out. If carpet performance is paramount, get the Dyson Visnav or if you don't mind used, the Roomba S9+. Older Roombas that bounce around randomly and have the dual rollers with a separate rubber and bristle roller are also great at carpet combing. I keep a 690 around just for that reason even though I also have had newer vac and mop combo robots.

Such a shame. My old 690 is STILL kicking and on garage duty. They just don’t die. And if they do, their older designs were modular and trivial to repair. The good old days… 

Loved my roomba for a year until I realized it was slowly destroying all of my previous rugs at their corners and edges 😭

I bought a used/refurbished Roomba 694 from Amazon for $80 and it has changed my life! I run it every day, and it keeps the floors generally clean and dust free. I’ve had it for about 7 months now, no issues. About 1-2 times per week I use a hand-held vacuum to spot vacuum the stairs and corners that the Roomba can’t reach. I have two fully-indoors cats and two partly-indoors dogs, and I’m amazed at how much pet hair the Roomba vacuums up each time!

My Roomba 690 from 8 years ago is still working fine. Still on the original battery. Just purchased a Roborock QRevo Curv so hoping I get at least 5 years out of that for how much I paid. I think a lot of longevity is based on how often filters are being changed out.

They all have "docks," so I think you mean you don't want a self-emptying machine. To be fair though, the area on the floor taken up by a self-emptying dock is about the same as the space taken up by the robot alone; and the same will be true with just the little charging station. The only direction where you can save space by using only the charging dock instead of the self-emptying dock is vertically. Cleaning ability: Some vacuum models in the Roomba brand line have more suction power than others. It's up to you to research the specs on that. Last spring I bought my first robot, a J5 Combo, which \*can\* mop, but I've never used that feature and never will. I bought it because at that time I couldn't get that level of suction in any machine that was dry-vacuum-only. I tried a Roborock for about a week before I got the Roomba. Great app, great navigation. But when it ran over my in-floor vents for forced air heat, or over the steel ring that supports my swivel rocker, its rollers absolutely fell out. Seriously! And when it finished a job and I went to empty its bin, there was hardly anything in the bin. So I borrowed an old, outdated Roomba - a 690 Series - and ran that immediately afterward. The bin was full of pet hairs. So even an old Roomba far surpassed a new Roborock. It's possible that that particular Roborock machine was faulty, but I wasn't ready to give Roborock another chance after iRobot/Roomba had proven itself. Navigation: Roombas need decent light to do well. Roborocks (and probably other Lidar-driven robots) do not. Depending on when you want to have your robot run, this may be an issue. App: iRobot's app is clunky. It works, eventually ... but it's not fun or efficient. Every time I go into it I feel like I'm in a find-the-secret-door strategy game, plus it's very S-L-O-W. I can go make coffee while the map loads. Roborock on the other hand was slick. In short, in my experience there are trade-offs. So far, Roomba/iRobot seems to have superior cleaning and machine durability, whereas Roborock had superior navigation and app functionality. I value the cleaning ability the most. What you value the most is up to you.

This prob isn’t what you want but I’m very happy with the old roombas. I have a 675 and 690 from goodwill for $20 and they both clean very well. They are very repairable and parts & filters are cheap for them from Amazon. I dunno… 1800… 1200… just so they map the place and empty themselves? Takes me 12 seconds to empty the bin after it cleans. The random navigation works really well. I’ve learned where to keep things and how to arrange the chairs / barstools so they don’t get stuck very often. I have 4 cats and every day they pick up all the fur. For mopping I have an old scooba 5900 which actually mops by sucking up the grime… something about dragging around a microfiber towel while spraying water just doesn’t seem effective to me. My house is a 1300 square foot row home though so maybe you have different needs than me.

675 or other 600 series model from a thrift store. $20. Doesn’t empty its self but if you want that you prob need to buy a new one or from someone off marketplace. Honestly emptying the bin yourself after it’s done takes 30 seconds :)

I came here to say this. Goodwill prices roombas without the base for $12 and $20 with base. I found a 675 and 690 there. Parts are available and cheap on Amazon. They work very well. Might need to check the stores regularly until you find one.

I’m not disagreeing with your experience, but I’ve been on my current Roomba for like 5 years with no issues.

I have 2 older roombas and 1 bissel that’s also a mop. Just basic roomba do great with daily upkeep and great with hair- but it’s dependent on layout of your home. Roomba get stuck and can’t go over any door thresholds. You’ll still need to map/vacuum weekly tho [link to the old roombas in your budget](https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B08SP5GYJP?psc=1&ref=ppx_pop_mob_b_asin_title)

I have a roomba and love it. I’m always surprised when I empty the bin. It picks up so much dust!

Older roombas are simple, reliable, durable, effective, and cheap. But they don't have smart navigation or mapping where you can ask them to clean specific areas. If you want navigation they become less cheap and less durable. I have a 10yo 600 series roomba and a new Roborock Q5. Q5 is great but I'm skeptical that it's going to last as long.

I have a Roomba 564 Pet I bought when my son was 6 months old. He's now 14 and the Roomba would be still doing the job if this little bastard had not screwed the elly plaque's screwheads. I bought a new battery I cannot replace because of that (I'll Dremel them out after the Spring clean out). So it was working since 2011, August. The other Roomba, a 600 something bought on discount in a clearance sale when my son was 6 or 7, is still going strong. I wonder how the Dreame L50 Pro Ultra is going to perform. It is my Mother's Day present, but we're not done with the Spring-clean so it just worked in the living-room.

Look for an irobot roomba 600 series. Random navigation, effective cleaning performance, durable and easy to repair, cheap spare brushes/filters/batteries. I mostly use a newer roborock, but when it dies, I've got a roomba 600 on standby in the closet.

I'd recommend an older roomba model as well, 500 or 600 series. They're very easy to take care of and repair, clean really well, are simple, and last. I have one of those cheap ionvac models you've probably seen. It's better than I expected, but an older roomba is way better still.

We have had an iRobot Roomba for 17 years. We initially bought the 535, it’s been upgraded with the new bin (aero vac 2) and running gear from the later 600 series It has had two battery replacements in its life, and has had a replacement main board once, which added the schedule feature. It cleans better than the 780 models relatives have. This Roomba, with replacements when things wear out, has outlived most other appliances we have. You can still buy the 600 series which is based on the same platform, and if ours ever became unrepairable, we would buy one. Heck, considering you can change all of the parts with a screwdriver and a bit of basic knowledge (how to plug/unplug things), a second hand one would be fine.

MOST DURABLE? Alright then, new robot vacuums wont really do that. I know i will get downvoted for this but if you dont need self emptying, mopping etc, just pick up a second hand Roomba 500 series, they are known for being extremely reliable. Some 600 series like 675 or 690 are 500 series with wifi and some minor improvements, they are pretty common, cheap and easy to repair. Want mapping? Roomba 980 or any 900 series roomba (do note that roomba 900 series doesnt have keep out zones). 900 series are known for being reliable and just good robots over all. Why did i recommend these? Because newer robor vacuums these days have too many moving parts, and they work best at homes. While the roombas i listed above were also made for homes, old irobot was different than current day irobot, more reliable and roombas are pretty modular, you can take then apart and drop in a replacement part easily. They can work decently in commercial environments, especially 500/600 series. This subreddit is mostly "against" irobot, so i'll say this, i am not paid by irobot, i am a 14 year old on the internet who is passionate about this stuff :)) Edit: Check out Makita's industrial robot vacuums as well. Way more suited to commercial use.

Buy an old roomba instead, (500/600/700/800/900) they are the most reliable you can get.

I have a roomba 6xx series. It was a gift. Thought it was gonna be a gimmick but it surprised me with how well it actually works (when its not getting hung up on cat toys.) Just dont forget to empty the hopper after each use and buy a full supply of extra parts. (Filters, brushes, the little wheel in the front.) Once a week I have to pull all the hair off the bristle brush and the cat fur from around the spindle ends but its a small price to pay for its constant upkeep. That particular brand iRobot is cool cus they seem to like Makers tinkering with their products sonthey make them very easy to fix. You can swap batteries out, motors, wheels... anything.

The basic 600 series Roombas don't have much to go wrong, and there are OEM and generic parts available all over the Internet. I'm not sure about high-end models, but the basic ones have been made for years and have excellent support

If you are into servers and self-hosting, Valetudo is an option. It's a self-hosted replacement for some robot vacuums' cloud services I also don't think the Roomba 600 series need cloud features. They use random navigation

Basic Roomba 600 series are what you want. Been in production for a long time, OEM and third party replacement parts available everywhere, no cloud services necessary. They have basic random-mode navigation, which is not as nice as a mapping feature, but it gets better coverage than most people would assume, and doesn't need any fancy sensors or software features

Go out on Ebay or your local thrift store and pick up old 500 or 600 series Roombas for parts. They usually just need a new battery. Be sure the charger comes with them. The older Roombas are superb cleaners and very durable. This is what we mostly use at our house along with several iRobot Scoobas for the mopping.

Pull it out once a month and put it through its paces and keep the battery charged. Pull the charged battery and store it separate from the robot. This way, your robot will be ready to go to work when you need it.

I bought one a while ago for the novelty since it was a black Friday sale (and I suck at keeping a schedule to vacum. Didn’t have mapping but I thought it would be smart enough to still navigate just fine. Instead it just rams into things then randomly changes direction. Meanwhile, a coworker bought some  bootleg that cost a fraction of the price and it runs flawlessly. All the extra shit that roomba charges for in it’s higher tier models are included for free.  Never buying another roomba product. They’ve clearly just been coasting off of brand recognition.

Our roomba tries to keep up. Hal (main floor roomba) needs maintenance every few days. But man 2 days where Hal is off duty and you can see it. The tumbleweeds roll in. Hal doesn’t replace vacuuming or steam cleaning area rugs. He does however help keep the dusting down and limits the tumbleweeds . My better half will tell me don’t pause Hal he is doing https://preview.redd.it/7mmkuro4c1ef1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4fd808d8cc6c7e830934f5fb947860ae71518915 Gods work ROFL. We have 3 dogs 2 super shedders GSD and Husky/GSD mix and 1 wire hair terrier. This year we have had to even vacuum dogs as well. They are so worth it! ❤️❤️❤️